The Nimrod Flipout: Stories (Paperback)

~ Etgar Keret (Author), Institute for Translation of Hebrew Literature (Author), Miriam Shlesinger (Translator), Sondra Silverston (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Keret, an Israeli writer who also writes children's books and collaborates with illustrators on graphic stories and novels, specializes in brainteasing short short stories reminiscent of the "Shouts and Murmurs" section of the New Yorker—30 are packed in this thin volume. A typical Keret situation is enacted in "Your Man": the narrator finds that his girlfriends inexplicably break up with him in the back of taxicabs while the radio always announces a caller from a certain address. He goes to the address, finds photos of his exes tacked to the wall and erupts in violence, with repercussions that give new meaning to masochism. Dogs play a role in Keret's stories similar to the sly role they assume in Thurber cartoons, hovering between the fantastic and the everyday, and sex is an obsession ("Actually, I've Had Some Phenomenal Hardons Lately" is one story's title.) In "Fatso," a man's girlfriend confides a secret: she turns into a rotund male at night. Like French surrealist Marcel Aymé, Keret keeps his stories one dimensional, but it's a dimension he has mastered, one that peels away the borderlines of normalcy. (Apr.)
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From The Washington Post

The Israeli author Etgar Keret writes short stories, some of which are very, very short and nearly all of which are very, very substantial. It's an achievement of economy that begins with his rousing opening sentences:

"Surprised? Of course I was surprised."

"So let's say I'm dead now."

"This is a story about people who once lived on the moon. Nowadays, there's no one up there, but up until just a few years ago, the place was mobbed."

Keret -- whose latest collection, The Nimrod Flipout (Farrar Straus Giroux; paperback, $12), has just been published in a brisk English translation by Miriam Shlesinger and Sondra Silverston -- is a master at enticing the reader with a quick bite that miraculously sates for days. As Israel's most acclaimed young writer, the 39-year-old novelist, short story crafter and screenwriter has conspicuously diverged from the pioneers-and-politics narrative central to his country's (admittedly young) literary canon, choosing instead to tell stories of love, loss and everyday neuroses.

But to call Keret apolitical would be to miss a seminal moment in the history of Jewish literature. Indeed, it would be like pigeonholing Isaac Bashevis Singer -- at whose knee Keret seems to have learned the art of magic realism, only to use it with more discipline than his master. There is fantasy in nearly every story in this collection -- parents who shrink as their son grows; a tryst told from the perspective of everyone in the room, including the cat ("I think I'll meow now") -- but the sharpest seasoning here is wit. In "Fatso," we are regaled with the tale of a man whose girlfriend morphs nightly into a short, hairy man, with surprising consequences for the relationship. "When you first met him, you didn't give a damn about soccer, but now you know every team. And whenever one of your favorites wins, you feel like you've made a wish and it's come true. . . . And so it goes: every night you fall asleep with him struggling to stay awake for the Argentinean finals, and in the morning there she is, the beautiful, forgiving woman who you love, too, till it hurts."

Keret is a cynic who can't manage to shake off his hopefulness -- the most reliable kind of narrator there is. His true ancestor may not be Singer but Woody Allen, who, in his earlier years, summoned the gods of fantasy to help argue his most famous philosophical insights. And Keret is exhibiting "Annie Hall"-era talent here, churning out gem after gem. "This is one story you've got to hear!" reads another of his attention-grabbing openers. Indeed it is.

The Nimrod Flipout
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 167 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (April 4, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374222436
• ISBN-13: 978-0374222437
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #95,371 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars When he's good, he's good . . ., April 20, 2006

By	KH1 (Middle America) - See all my reviews

There are many fantastic short stories in this collection, _The Nimrod Flipout_, by Israeli author Etgar Keret. There are also many that are reminiscent of first drafts from a night-school creative writing class. When he's good, Keret is a fantastic new talent, full of humor and existential angst, but when he's not - he's trite, cliche, and boring - one more young guy writing about getting stoned and laid.

The titular story "The Nimrod Flipout", is one of the best in the entire collection. Three young men are possessed, in turn, by the spirit of their friend, Nimrod, who killed himself after his girlfriend broke up with him. [Variety is also not Keret's strong suit. There are at least two other stories where someone kills themselves because they've been dumped.] After the narrator, the last to succumb to the spirit of his deceased friend, the possession repeats itself starting over again with Miron, the first to be possessed. It's a touching story about the frivolity of youth, and deeply tragic, as well; its also one of the funniest stories in the collection.

"Fatso", the opening story, I also loved. It is about a guy whose girlfriend turns into a fat, drunk, soccer-loving man after the sun goes down, and how, after spending many nights going out and watching soccer at the bar with this character, he begins to love his girlfriend, too.

This collection has its shining moments, and is highly recommended to fans of short fiction. However, don't be surprised if some of the stories dissapoint.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars so-so, April 8, 2006

By	concerned reader "concerned reader" (Europe) - See all my reviews

Some of these stories are brilliant, first round knockouts. Others are shtick-yawns. The best are like the wondrous short-short stories of Spencer Holst. The worst are whines from the slacker you'd never listen to for five minutes if you bumped into them at a bar. Buy the book for the wonderful, but expect a very mixed bag.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Israeli Magical Realism, January 1, 2008

By	P. Willson (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Who knew the Magical Realist mantle would end up in Tel Aviv? (There's no better place for it!) This is a somewhat uneven collection of short stories, thus the missing star. However, it's extremely rare to find a short story collection where that isn't the case.

Maybe he gets half a star back, and rounded up to the nearest star, because most of these tiny fables are incredibly good. Several are snort-wine-out-your-nose funny, some are perfectly sly, and others are sweet or poignant without sentimentality. A few lumber along unfulfilled, but just a few. (And they're really short.)

He's very a fine writer even in translation, with clear eyes and no fear.